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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28083966">The Christmas Gift</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thinksy/pseuds/Thinksy'>Thinksy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Christmas, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:09:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,505</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28083966</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thinksy/pseuds/Thinksy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A study of Christmas Gifts between McGonagall and Snape during his time as a professor.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Christmas Gift</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>1980</strong>
</p><p>It was his first year teaching. Voldemort was alive and reigning terror across the nation and she knew he was one of his. How could he not be after being such a misbegotten creature at school? All harsh words and sharp looks. She got him shampoo.</p><p>He got her nothing.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1981</strong>
</p><p>He was in Azkaban that year. Voldemort had fallen that Halloween and the aurors had come to arrest him three days later. His trial was set for January sometime. She didn't care much honestly. He had been an unpleasant boy and deserved to learn that the world had consequences.</p><p>When Albus spoke up on his behalf and claimed him as a spy she had been surprised. It didn't fit what she expected of him. She left him a bottle of fire whiskey in his office the day he was released along with a note hoping that he was willing to become a better person finally.</p><p>He never said a word.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1982</strong>
</p><p>He had drunk plenty that year on his own, she thought with a sniff when it came time to choose. She was constantly telling Albus that he wasn't fit to be a teacher, but the Headmaster only cautioned sympathy. He said the boy was simply reacting poorly to the dementors. But that had been only three months, a year ago. He was too young to have enough memories to have provided real torment. Enough coddling. That year she had her house elf throw out his stash, all except one new bottle which she added a potion to that would make all alcohol taste like dirt for the next three months.</p><p>He didn't speak to her for the rest of the school year.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1983</strong>
</p><p>She wished he would go back to not speaking to her. He was still such a child. As the silent treatment hadn't worked to annoy her he had ramped up his snarky git routine to 100 and barely gave her a moment's peace. She got him shampoo again that year.</p><p>He didn't get her anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1984</strong>
</p><p>The seventh years had all been fourth years when Voldemort had been defeated. It was also the first year that the boy wasn't teaching an old classmate as those that had been first years when he was a seventh year had graduated last June. The last of the death eater trials had finished last summer too as the aurors had finally captured the last resistors in hiding and Albus declared that they needed to work on school unity. That the snakes shouldn't be punished for their parents' mistakes. So the professors had been clamping down on fighting in the halls  that term. And the boy had become distracted by nightly patrols looking for students to give detention to. She got him red ink to go with his snarky comments that lined her students' essays.</p><p>He didn't even acknowledge the holiday.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1985</strong>
</p><p>She had caught a Gryffindor calling him <em>Snivellous</em> in the halls a few weeks ago. It was an old school nickname she knew, but hadn't realized it was still being whispered around the school. He had called the student a stupid lion and given him a detention, but she stepped in and changed it to a month of Saturday detentions with Filch and a ban on quidditch for the next two games. Her lions wouldn't be allowed to disrespect a teacher - even one as unpleasant as him. He never thanked her. She got him a thesaurus that year. With the word thanks bookmarked.</p><p>He didn't get her anything, but his year-end report was written in red ink and was three times longer than it needed to be with the synonyms crammed in.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1986</strong>
</p><p>William Weasley had spent a week in St Mungo's in October from blowing up a potion he had been brewing secretly in his dorm. Three of his dorm mates had spent the same week under Poppy's care as the boy brewed them antidotes for the fumes they had inhaled. She hadn't realized how many fewer potions accidents there were in his class, than there had been under Horace, until then. She got him a bag of her favorite tea.</p><p>He didn't get her anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1987</strong>
</p><p>He prefers coffee, not tea it turns out. She got him a bag of coffee beans from some muggle catalog.</p><p>He didn't get her anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1988</strong>
</p><p>For the first time as either a student or a professor, he was leaving for the holiday. He had a potions conference to attend in Paris for the week. She had his house elf smuggle a black beret wrapped in garish red paper into his bag.</p><p>He didn't get her anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1989</strong>
</p><p>She teamed up with Albus that year. He gave the boy his usual gift of socks - this year was green and blue with purple cauldrons and she gave him a matching scarf.</p><p>He didn't get her anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1990</strong>
</p><p>The boy - though at thirty he was getting too old to be called a boy - had been on a rampage about the second year Weasley twins dung bombing the snakes' common room. She got him cedar candles that would remove any smell when lit.</p><p>He didn't get her anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1991</strong>
</p><p>He had been antsy about Harry Potter all term. And Quirinius for some reason. He had also been fuming that Albus had set such an easy trap around the Philosopher's Stone when he didn't think it should be in the school at all. She got him a box of chocolates and calming bath soaps and shrugged off his worries.</p><p>He didn't get her anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1992</strong>
</p><p>Someone had been writing notes in blood on the walls and petrifying things. The school was on edge, but no one more so than the boy. He took it as a personal affront to the integrity of his house. She got him a book on the life of Salazar Slytherin.</p><p>He didn't get her anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1993</strong>
</p><p>He was more acerbic than normal this year. She attributed it to the escape of Sirius Black at first, but after Albus admitted that he was brewing Wolfsbane for Remus she began to understand. The attack in his fifth year had finally been revealed to her and she was shocked by Albus' unkind treatment of the boy back then. And the lack of true punishment that Black had received. She remembers having overturned his quidditch ban a bare month into the sentence and the month of detentions had been mostly studying with personal help on Black's transfiguration assignments. Was this when Black had gone bad? It made her question everything she remembered from his school years. She got him one of her family's tartans that year.</p><p>He didn't get her anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1994</strong>
</p><p>The yule ball had overshadowed much of this year's festivities. The castle was all a tizzy, except for him of course. He was his usual snarky, unriled self with nary a care for the others' panic. She got him a set of emerald cufflinks to wear at the ball anyway.</p><p>He didn't get her anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1995</strong>
</p><p>He had lost weight this year. She knew he had gone back to spying for Dumbledore and had seen him limping around the castle when he didn't know she was watching. He was careful in public to maintain his neutrality, especially around Dolores. His innocuousness to her would be the envy of every Slytherin. Though his snide comments went over Dolores' head easily, so he made a game of it to see how often he could insult her in such a way that she thought it was an agreement. She was tempted to get him a larger thesaurus to help but settled on a pickled toad to augment his stores.</p><p>He didn't get her anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1996</strong>
</p><p>Albus' hand was worrying. As was the fact that he was gone more than he was present. And when he was here, he spent most nights holed up with him or Harry Potter. She was worried too, that he had finally been given the defense position. She only hoped the curse would push him back into potions and not something worse. She supposed she should worry about the fate of all her old students, but his fate hung heavily on her heart. She had come to see that Albus could be ruthless in pursuit of his Greater Good. She got him a puzzle box that Master Curse Breakers used for practice with his favorite coffee beans locked in the center. </p><p>He didn't get her anything. Though he did offer to share a cup of coffee with her on her birthday.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1997</strong>
</p><p>She thought about not getting him anything. He didn't deserve to sit where he sat. Didn't deserve to live after a betrayal of this magnitude. She got him a pair of vibrant red and gold socks that Albus would have loved.</p><p>He didn't get her anything.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1998</strong>
</p><p>She got him a bottle of fire whiskey to leave at his grave.</p><p>An unsigned bag of her favorite tea was waiting below her tree.</p><p> </p>
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